The best method of applying thermal paste to a sandybridge

Supernaut91 · 26 May 2011 at 23:12

As specified above, most of you guys must have your own tips and techniques. It will be interesting to see each others , providing which one also gives the most success.

Bunyan.

Plec · 26 May 2011 at 23:37

For flat surfaced HS i use a rice size blob or thin line down the middle of the CPU.

For exposed heatpipes on the base i do the below: (i copy and pasted a reply i did in another post to save retyping)

If you have exposed heatpipes (ridged surface) you could try tinting the surface of the heatsink first to fill in the voids made by the exposed pipes on the base (artic silver 5 advises this but i've used this method with other gunk if i felt the heatsink required it.). You're basically filling the gaps, created by the exposed pipes, but scrape of all the excess so the base of the heatsink only has a very slight tint of gunk (credit card is great for this). The theory is that it fills, the sometimes pretty large, gaps that exposed heatpipes can cause on the base of the heatsink.

After tiniting the heatink you then only need to apply a single line (less than a mm thick) down the middle of the core (vertically) - but don't go from edge to edge leave a 5mm gap at each end.

This method should ensure that the pipe gaps don't suck up all of the gunk on the cpu and allow it to spread as it would on a shiny flat heatsink base.

I will stress that you only need to use this method on exposed heatpipe heatsinks (and even then not all of the time) - there is no need to use this method with perfectly flat based heatsinks.

Supernaut91 · 27 May 2011 at 13:37

I have an akasa venom cooler so I may try the line method.

Sin_Chase · 27 May 2011 at 18:40

I have a venom and I did the pea sized blob method in the middle but put extra material down to counteract the additional gaps. My temps are good but next time I re-seat it I will be interested to see the spread pattern.

Rob_J · 27 May 2011 at 18:51

Plec said:
If you have exposed heatpipes (ridged surface) you could try tinting the surface of the heatsink first to fill in the voids made by the exposed pipes on the base (artic silver 5 advises this but i've used this method with other gunk if i felt the heatsink required it.). You're basically filling the gaps, created by the exposed pipes, but scrape of all the excess so the base of the heatsink only has a very slight tint of gunk (credit card is great for this). The theory is that it fills, the sometimes pretty large, gaps that exposed heatpipes can cause on the base of the heatsink.

After tiniting the heatink you then only need to apply a single line (less than a mm thick) down the middle of the core (vertically) - but don't go from edge to edge leave a 5mm gap at each end.

This method should ensure that the pipe gaps don't suck up all of the gunk on the cpu and allow it to spread as it would on a shiny flat heatsink base.

I will stress that you only need to use this method on exposed heatpipe heatsinks (and even then not all of the time) - there is no need to use this method with perfectly flat based heatsinks.

This is how I apply it to my Akasa Venom, though I used a 5mm blob in the centre of the CPU ... keeps temps very respectable.